Ore-separating device



W. 8. BROWN.

ORE SEPARATING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 17. I920. 1,4,?1. Patented y 25,1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

A TTOR/I/EYS W. S. BROWN.

ORE SEPARATING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-17. 1920.

1,423,?5 1. Patented July 2.5, 1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- 4 TTORIVEYS W. 8. BROWN.

ORE SEPARATING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR-17, 1920.

Patented July 25, 1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

i 7 7 0 3 a 7m Z MI W 5 4 p M M M Z H m l .00: "awn Ill/VENTOR ATTORNEYS WI I SHERMAN nnown, or WALLACE, IDAHO.

- ORE-SEPABATING DEVICE.

Specification of'Letters Patent. Pgmtgntgd July 25, 1922.

.lipplicationfiled April 17,1920. Serial No. 374,689.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVIILIAM S. BROWN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Wallace, in the county of Shoshone and State of Idaho, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ore-Separating Devices, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention is an improvement in ore separating devices, and has for its object to provide a device of the character specified in the nature of the jig, by means of which a series of sizes of ore may be Worked simul taneously, and wherein the length of the stroke of the jig may be lengthened or shortened.

A further object isto provide a new and improved: form of cup for use with the jig, to assist in and facilitate separation of ores.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of the improved device,

. Figures 2 and 3 are sections on the lines 2-2 and 33 respectively, of Figure 1,

Figure 4e is a partial side view of the jig, Figure 5 is a, vertical section through one of theboxes. i In the present embodiment of'the invention, asuitable tank 1 is provided, about one end of which is arranged a supporting frame or superstructure 2, and the basket 3 of the is suspended in the tank from the superstructure.

The suspension is by means of' links 41, which are connected at their lower ends to shafts 5 arrangedtransversely of the basket near its ends, and connected thereto by bearmg plates 6, and at their outer ends to levers I 7-which are balanced in the superstructure.

These levers are rigid intermediate their ends wlth the ends of the shaft 8 mounted in sectional bearings 9 on the superstructure,

and each lever has slidably mounted thereon, on the opposite side of the pivotal connection from the link l, a counter-weight 10.

The jig is swung by means of. a shaft 11 which is 'journaled at theifeed end of tank, and which is driven by means of a belt 12 engaging a suitable pulley 13 on the shaft. The shaft 11 has a crank 14 intermediate its ends, and this crank is connected by a linker pitman 15, with a lever 16 pivoted on the shaft 8 before mentioned, in a mannor to be presently described, and the upper end of the lever, which extends above. the shaft 8, is connected by a link 17 with an upstanding arm 18. on the shaft at, the opposite end of the superstructure.

The lower end of the lever 16 is are shaped as clearly shown in Figure,2, ,on an arc whose center is the crank shaft 11, and

the link or pitman 15 is slidably connected at its outer end with the crank, thesaid link or pitman having at the said end a fork, between whose arms the are shaped portion of the lever is received, and the said arms may beclamped on the lever. Any Suitable form of vertically adjusting mechanism may be provided; for" the pitman, to raise and lower the outer end, of the latter to the 'proper position on the lever 16, and it will be obvious that by varying. the connection between the pitman 14 and the lever 16, the

length of the stroke ofthe jig may bev varied. The ore isfed to the basket by a feed chute 19, and water is fed to the tank in any. suit able manner, and in such quantities that, a

predetermined level will be held, therein,

when all the gates to be described are open.

. The basket has its top and bottom open, and arranged transverselythereof nearer, the bottom than the top isasieve or screen, 20

of suitable mesh. This sieve is held in approximately horizontal Y position by means of series of transverse slats or partition plates. 21 and 22, the plates 21 being arranged above the screen, and the plates 22 below the screen. Attheir ends the plates 22 rest upon angleplates 23, and the plates21 are prevented from upward movement by stop bars 24 secured to the sides of the basket above the ends of thesaid plates.

These bars are held down uponthe plates 21 by means of inclined. blocks or wedges 2 5. Each block has its lower face abutting the bar. and its upper inclined face (yo-operates with an inclined guide 26 secured to the basket wall. It will be obvious that by moving the blocks longitudinally the bars may be tightly wedged,'to compensate for Wear, and to hold the blockslirmly place.

The ore; that passes through the. screen, drops to the bottom of the tank, and atv its bottom the tank is divided into a series of compartments, by transverse partitions 27. The last partition 27 is flush with the deliveryend of thebasket when the basket is at rest, and the upper edges of the partitions are just below the plane of the bottom of the basketwhen the basket is at rest. At each compartment the tank has a gate 28 for permitting the discharge of the water and the values from the tank.

In operation, water is piped into the tank near the inlet end of the basket, in a steady stream, fast enough to keep the water in the tank up over the feed in the basket at all times, even with all of the gates open.

The feed consists of crushed ore and rock of a size depending upon the mesh of the screen in the basket, is fed to the basket. The largest size of the feed should be about the same size or a little larger than the apertures of the screen, and grading from thence down to fine sand.

Before ore is run on to the top of the screen, a bed should be prepared, by placing on the screen some ore of larger size than the mesh of the screen. This ore provides a bed to hold the sand and light materialv until a bed is formed by the natural action of the screen.

If the largest ore that comes on the screen is slightly larger than the perforations of the screen it will make its own bed, but if the larger size is a little smaller than theperforations, the bedding must be placed as above mentioned. When once a bed is formed, it will remain. until it wears small enough topass through the screen. When the basket moves toward the tail end of the tank, itis also swung upward from the water in the tank. When the basket is moved toward the feed end of the tank, the water is driven violently upward through the material in the basket, and the said material is lifted by the water, and the lighter material, containing'the poorer grade of ore is washed on top of the heavier grade, so that the better or heavier grade will always move nearer the screen, while the lighter poorer material will be lifted toward the top of the mass. Over the first compartment of the tank there is placed on the sieve a thicker bed of coarse ore than over the succeeding compartment, and the ore will be heavier in the succeeding compartmcnt than in the third compartment. That is, the bed of ore is gradually thinned toward the tail end of the screen, the bed over the last compartment below the basket being very thin. Thus everything that has any ore in it will be permitted to settle. 011 the screen, while that which contains no metal will pass over the tail end of the basket into the last compartment. H

The thicker the bed of ore on the screen, the richer the ore that passes through the screen and conversely, and the diiferent grades of ore will gradually be worked down and discharged into the several compartments. The ore that falls into the-compartments is removed bythe water running would carry the bed away and nothing would be left to hold the sand and rock out of the ore. The slats beneath the screen hold the water in place forcing it to go upward -through the screen and the material If the slats were not there the thereon. basket would tend to ride onthe water.

Referringto Figure v3 it will be seen that each slat 21 is notched at its center intermediate its ends, and at its top, as indicated at 29. These notches are to permit the excess bedding to pass over the slats, and in such manner that the excess bedding is worked toward the tail end of the jig.

The shafts 5 are connected with the tank, by means of the mechanism shown in Figures 1, 3 and 4. One of the shafts 5 is shown as having adjustably connected with each outer end thereof an arm 32, the said arm extending at an obtuse angle to one of the links 4. Each arm 32 has a sectional bearing which is adjustably clamped on the shaft, and the other end of the arm is provided with an angular lug 32. This lug has connected therewith a block 40, which block carries a ournal pin 33. The block 40 is connected to the lug 32 by means of a bolt 41. This bolt has a tapering end portion which engages a tapering opening in the lug 32 and the nut at the end of the bolt will clamp the bolt firmly with respect to the lug 32% The bolt is of such length that the block can slide on the bolt between the head thereof and the lug 32 and the journal pin 83 passes through aslot 34 in a plate 35 which is secured to the outer face of the tank wall in spaced relation thereto, as shown in Fig ure 3. By loosening the pin 83, which is a bolt, from the plate the said pin may be ad justed in the slot 34 to vary the endwise swing or" the basket. The block is rotatable on the journal pin 33 and slidable on the bolt 41, so that when the'basket is raised to its highest point, and starts down, it drops straight down until the block 40 has moved along the bolt 41 to'position against the head of the latter. The amount of possible movement of the block between the head of the bolt 41 and the lug 32 will be. determined in view of the ore worked on the jig, and the height the basket is being raised by the eccentric. By having the block 40 connected onto the arc-plate 35, the said block will afford a good rest for the arm 32 and also a good bearing for the journal pin 83. When the basket comes straight down, the water will be forced up through the ore the same at all places.

If the joint between the basket and each arm 32 was rigid, the ore 011 the lower sides of the slats would not be agitated or worked as thoroughly as is permitted by the joint construction described, because the slats would hold the water back during part of the movement of the jig. As the basket rises in the water on the forward motion, the arms 32 will rise against the blocks 40 and as it starts down and back, the joints between the blocks and the arms will open as far as the belts 41 will permit. There will be produced a stroke more in triangular form for the basket, while if the joints were tight, there would be produced a stroke more of the rotary type.

Sundry of the plates or slats 21 have connected therewith cups which facilitate the passing of the ore through the screen; Each of these cups consists of a section 30 and a section 31, the sections being of channel shape, and they are rigidly connected to the plates and to each other.

All of these plates have notches, and the cups may be connected to any of the plates. It will be seen that the part 30 of each cup is placed on the upper side of the slat, while the part 31 is placed on the lower side. Referring to Figure 5, it will be seen that each cup has flanges for engaging the slat, and these flanges are riveted to each other and to the slat as shown. A gate 42 is mounted to slide vertically between the section 80 and the slat, and it will be noticed that this gate has a central opening 43 which is of about the same width as the notch 29of the slat, and of considerable length.

The connection between the parts 30 and 31 of the cup is by way of the notch 29 and opening 43, and it will be obvious that the capacity of this opening may be varied by raising and lowering the gate. The section 30 of the cup is raised above the screen at its bottom, as shown in Figure 5, while the section 31 rests upon the screen. In order to adjust the gate 42 it is raised or lowered. If the ore discharges too freely, the, gate is raised, and this lessens the capacity of the slot from below. If the gate is not dis-- charging free enough, the gate is lowered. As the gates move down and back in the water, the bedding and material is raised off the sieve and also raised in the cup sections 30. As the ore raises in the section 30, it will flow over through the notch 29 in to the part 31, and will then pass through the screen into the compartment immediately below the cup. v

The ore that goes through the sieve or screen, and the ore that the cups discharge will go' down into their respective compartments and will be discharged at 28. The waste, or that which contains no ore, will be worked down over the end of the basket, and will flow into the compartment in the end of the tank where it will be discharged.

The element 30 will be made adjustable, to permit any size feed that might be Worked on the basket to pass under the said part freely. The coarser the feed the higher the cup will be from the sieve.

I claim:

1. A sizing apparatus for ore comprising a tank having a plurality of partitions defining compartments, a basket within the tank and having upper and lower series of parallel spaced transversely extending slats and a screen held between the slats, pairs of cups attached to opposite sides of certain of said slats, one cup of each pair having its lower end open and spaced above the screen, the other cup having its lower end open and in contact with the screen, said slats notched to provide communica tion between the cups of each pair, and vertically adjustable gates having openings adapted for registration with said notches, said cups extending above the upper edge of said slats and constituting guides for said gates.

2. A sizing apparatus for ore comprising a tank having a plurality of transverse partitions definlng compartments, a basket within the tank and having a series of up per and lower spaced parallel transverse slats and a screen disposed between the slats, pairs of cups attached to opposite sides of certain of said slats, one cup of each pair having its lower end spaced above the screen and the other cup extending down to and in contact with the screen, there being notches in said slats between said cups thereby establishing communication between the cups of each pair, vertically adjustable gates having openings adapted for registration with said notches, said cups being extended above the upper edges of said slats to constitute guides for said gates, and means for operating said basket, to cause it to generate a substantially triangular path of movement.

WILLIAM SHERMAN BROWN. 

